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Continuing my attempt at an "easy mode" bitcoin node build on a used Lenovo laptop (~$120?).

Installing Ubuntu Desktop 22.04.3 LTS was smooth. Installing Umbrel via their bash script was easy once the Docker registry server was back online.

PROBLEM: Umbrel apps wouldn't install via the web UI. Had to free up port 53 for some reason.

https://www.linuxuprising.com/2020/07/ubuntu-how-to-free-up-port-53-used-by.html

Okay, now we're finally cooking!

Will let it do a full IBD just to see what this CPU (Intel Core i3-10110U) is capable of. It's overkill for our needs, while still being a 4-yr-old cpu and still quite cheap. Came with 16GB RAM and I swapped in an okay 2TB nvme.

That's 4.6x more powerful than a Raspi4. IBD started about 5 minutes ago. We'll see how long it takes to finish.

J. Thaddeus Toad 2y ago

Been looking to do something similar but curious why umbrel over start9 or just running bitcoin core direct? Can you do dual internal drives for RAID protection? Especially if you want to do some lighting channels.

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Discussion

Keith Mukai 2y ago

I haven't used Start9 yet, but perusing their app list was a little disappointing.

The goal for THIS build is for the simplest possible setup and operation for a non-techy person. My guess is that Umbrel is going to be the most user-friendly UI once it's up and running. But will give Start9 a try, too.

Because of the above goal, running Bitcoin Core directly on debian/ubuntu isn't viable (e.g. when v26.0 is released, one click upgrade on Umbrel).

(note: I'm running experiments on the far other end of the spectrum building a ProxMox mini PC cluster with each service manually installed by me in its own debian VM)

Internal RAID on a cheap used laptop is probably possible (there is room for nvme and sata ssd) but that's starting to get into "if you're talking about RAID, you're already more advanced so what are you doing here?" territory (again, remembering that this laptop is for non-techy noobs; I don't think a laptop is necessarily the right form factor for someone who's more advanced).

I'll be setting up a RAID mirror/NAS on one of my more advanced mini PCs, but my approach there will be:

* 1TB nvme system drive

* 2TB sata ssd data drive

* 2x USB3 spinning 8TB hdds RAID mirror

So I'm separating safe, redundant storage (RAID mirror) from very fast data access (sata ssd) and keeping that separate from an extremely fast system disk.

The RAID will be the slowest storage I have (because usb3) but it doesn't matter since it's just a giant place to dump lots of regular backups.

Now, sure, if I was building on a regular-sized desktop, I'd run the 8TB RAID mirror on internal sata and wouldn't need the 2TB ssd data drive at all. The mini PC approach does force some compromises.